Continuing Thoughts...

1. God is everything that is unknowable by ME.

2. The experience of unknowability is a mental state. For me, it is blackness or a place without discernable information, a place where there is no neurochemical responses (no light).

3. Everyone experiences the state of unknowability and it is the same physically for everyone; at least to the extent that the experience of the color red, or a mosquito bite, or the taste of a juicy steak is the same for everyone.

Therefore, my god is hiding in the darkness. Now I understand the words: Let there be light. The all knowing god is simply the inverse of the mostly unknowing man who sits in the shadow of darkness awaiting his ascent into the light of the knowing. That ascent occurs during ones life and not thereafter.

Deists should use caution when coopting Einstein - who certainly did use the metaphor of God to illustrate his perspective of universal harmony and order. His was a very restricted Deism and he was dead set against unsubstantiated mysticial beliefs in life after death. I would define Einstein as more of a Pantheist who wished to express his appreciation of the "divinely" beautiful qualities of a thoroughly naturalistic universe.

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." -- Albert Einstein

"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." -- Albert Einstein

He believed that human well-being could be improved through political mechanisms and was an advocate of Socialism and World Government:
www.changesurfer.com/eventho...ein.html


Here is another great thinker expressing his conviction that even without a God, life has meaning:

"I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting." -- Bertrand Russell

Jefferson's the Deist's advice:

"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must approve the homage of Reason rather than that of blindfolded Fear." -- Thomas Jefferson

To be fair, he also said:

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson (3rd US Pres, Drafter of Decl of Ind)

While I am a full supporter of religious freedom, I also support Jefferson's wall of seperation between Church and State - they both corrupt each other.

Unfortunately, the most fiercely advocated religious sentiments appear to be radical and nihilistic (no Islamic quotes included, but political Islam [medieval Sharia Law, etc.] is on my list too):

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." -- Martin Luther
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." -- Jesus, Matthew 10:34

Darwin's thoughts:
"I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine." -- Charles Darwin (made a deathbed conversion to Roman Catholicism either out of fear or to appease relatives)

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of [hu]mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamaties that engine of grief has produced!" -- John Adams (2nd US Pres, original revolutionary of the US)

With all its historical baggage, I see little use in the embrace of amorphious religious concepts that offer no additional comfort than what fellow humans and their most noble endeavors could provide. If the Deist god is a deadbeat dad, why worship him? Sorry to be so cutting, but I have to agree with JS Mill when he said:

"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known." -- John Stuart Mill


Ben

I'm almost afraid to get into this discussion because I am neither as educated nor talented at expressing myself in the written word as you Reverend, but here goes.

I do not quite sum up God as all of my unknowns. I do believe in an "advanced being" if not a "superior" one. For example, although I think the guy who calls himself Rael is a little whacked, I also think that he makes some very valid arguments for the possibilities that we were created by a similar humanlike race. Why not? We are very very close to being able to take an "empty" cell and turn it into a sperm cell or a liver cell. We will eventually be to a point where we can create copies of ourselves in which we can implant all of our previous knowledge (somewhat like was portrayed in "Sixth Day") before we are "awake". I find this incredibly exciting. And if I'm wrong about the "advanced beings," that's ok. It makes for good science fiction.

Here's one perspective this discussion seems to have missed: thinking of "God" as separate from oneself has a distinct disadvantage. Instead of feeling empowered and "one with the universe" (if I may use a hackneyed phrase), one can feel subordinated, giving up one's free will to go the One True Way. I know it doesn't have to be like that, but it so often is.

So, being a Zen Buddhist, I have to say: if we're in a realm of unknowables, I think you should live your life in the healthiest, clearest-minded way possible, taking all responsibility for your actions. Belief systems/cosmologies that don't help you do that are less desirable in my opinion.